Miracles
by insaneantics21
Summary: The arrival of Santana and Brittany's second child. *Puppy-verse #14*
1. Chapter 1

Preceded by:

Puppy | My Girl(s) | Perfection | Decisions | Baby Love  
Baby Love 2 | Slushies: The Next Generation | Little Gold Stars  
Change | Baby Just Say Yes | (Not Quite) Nine Months  
Double Trouble | Bigger is Better

**Author's Note: **Puppy-verse. I've been itching to post this for weeks. Longer A/N at the very end.

* * *

**--November 4, 2025 - November 5, 2025 --**  
Aside from the morning sickness, digestive issues, heartburn, ankle swelling, back pain, occasional dizziness, and weight gain, Santana didn't really mind being pregnant. Okay, that was a lie. She wasn't all that fond of it. But she was doing it for her and Brittany and because she honestly wanted to. There were worse things she could go through and she knew it would all be worth it in the end when the baby joined their family.

Life was fantastic at the moment, people still needed business lawyers so Santana was secure in her job, Brittany's dance studio was doing great, Joshua was healthy and happy, and they loved their new house and the neighborhood (even if Rachel did break Santana's 'no coming over unannounced' rule on a weekly basis), and Santana had just hit her twenty-ninth week which meant they were a little closer to their new addition. Everything was fine until it wasn't.

Santana was in her office going through a few cases when the pain in her abdomen hit and she nearly doubled over. She yelled for her assistant and the intern came running.

"Something's wrong," the Latina gasped.

Santana was in the emergency room less than fifteen minutes and two more pains later via ambulance and completely panicking at the word "contractions" that the doctor kept repeating to her. She was hooked up to heart monitors and fetal monitors and God knows what other kind of monitors and she signed something and there was another pain and then there was a syringe of something that was pushed into the IV line and then there was no more pain. She still wasn't entirely sure what was going on but the one thing she did know is that she wanted, no, she _needed_ Brittany.

Brittany was there five minutes later with Joshua on her hip and a promise from Quinn that the other blonde would be there as soon as she could be. Once Brittany got there Santana calmed down and kept her cool and smiled at the blonde and assured her that everything would be okay just as long as she was there. When Quinn called that she was in the parking lot waiting, Brittany hurried out to hand over Joshua and the doctor came in.

"Mrs. Lopez," the tall, thin man said as he flipped through Santana's chart, "your baby is okay, all of his vital signs are normal. It's you we're worried about right now. I've put in a call to your OB/GYN and she'll be here as soon as she can."

Ignoring the fact that the doctor just told her the sex of the baby even though she didn't want to know it, Santana shook her head.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You were having contractions, very strong contractions. They were most definitely not Braxton-Hicks. The medicine we gave you earlier seems to have stopped them but it might not be enough in the long run. There are experimental drugs out there but they have shown to have some very costly side effects and quite honestly, I don't like using them. The other option would be to deliver."

Santana's jaw dropped and she wrapped her arms protectively around her baby bump. "Deliver? Are you insane? Who the hell gave you a medical license!? I'm only at twenty-nine weeks, you quack! This kid will come on its due date, period."

"Mrs. Lopez, the survival rate at twenty-nine weeks is quite significant."

"Not as high as forty weeks."

The doctor sighed. "We will keep you overnight but if you go into labor again or either of your vital signs changes then I am going to insist that you deliver and I am sure your regular doctor will feel the same."

Brittany came back into the room with a small smile on her face and she carefully sat down on the bed next to Santana and put one hand on the Latina's stomach and the other on her neck.

"You'll be okay, won't you?"

"Of course I will, B," Santana assured her, plastering on a brave smile to hide her panic. "You're here, I'll be fine."

"I'll get the paperwork you need to sign in order to be admitted upstairs," the doctor said before he left.

"It's just a precaution," Santana said when Brittany gasped. "They're just doing what the rules say they have to do." Santana smiled. "Don't you worry at all, okay?"

Brittany lunged forward and wrapped her arms around her wife and Santana did the same, holding on tight and pressing a kiss to Brittany's shoulder letting a few tears slip out.

"Quinn says to call if we need anything," Brittany whispered.

Santana was taken up to the maternity ward, Brittany stayed by her side all evening until Quinn called to make sure everything was alright and Santana sent Brittany down to get dinner since the blonde hadn't eaten.

"S, what's going on?"

"I had a few contractions. The baby is fine."

"What about you, though?"

"I feel fine, Q. Tired, but fine."

"Santana…"

"If it happens again I have to deliver," Santana said quietly. She grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes and sniffled. "I'm kind of like…petrified."

"How much have you told B?"

"She knows about the contractions but I told her I would be fine. I don't want her to worry."

"San, we're not in high school anymore. This isn't like the time you told her that her goldfish was sleeping and then replaced it with a new one. You have to tell her. She can handle it."

Brittany bounced back into the room and Santana gave a weak smile. "Okay, Q. I'll call you if anything happens."

Santana hung up the phone and patted the space next to her on the bed, Brittany eagerly slipped in beside her and smiled.

"We need to talk about something, B."

"Hm?"

"If I have the contractions again…they can't give me anymore medicine. Well, they could…but they don't want to because it could hurt me or hurt the baby. If that happens then the baby will have to come."

Brittany furrowed her eyebrows. "But it's not time yet."

"I know that, B. Sometimes it just happens though. Joshua was early, remember?"

Brittany nodded. "But it won't happen, right? It's way too early, the baby can't come now. You told me you would be fine."

"B, I don't know what's going to happen, okay? I know it's way too early but we just have to wait and see."

The blonde snuggled closer to her wife and wrapped her arms around the Latina and kissed the top of her head. Santana curled into her and buried her face into Brittany's shoulder.

"I'm scared, S."

"Me too," Santana whispered. "Me too."

"I'm gonna be strong. You were strong for me lots of times. It's my turn."

Brittany's strength was put to the ultimate test when, at three in the morning, Santana woke up clutching her stomach and yelling to make the pain stop. The blonde scrambled out of the bed and punched the page button on the wall even though Santana's yell had sent three nurses and the doctor running in. Santana relaxed back against the bed and gasped for air when the pain stopped but every screen she was attached to was beeping and flashing, Brittany grabbed onto Santana's hand and shook.

"Mrs. Lopez…"

"Please, is there anything at all you can do?"

The doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry but we have to do a Caesarean _now_. His vital signs are dropping. You need to sign this and we'll get you to the operating room." He held out a clipboard and a pen and Santana shakily took it and scribbled her name on the line.

Brittany was taken to scrub up and she was waiting for Santana in the brightly lit room when she was brought in. The blonde took Santana's hand and kissed the back of it.

"You'll be okay," Brittany whispered.

Santana nodded. "I love you, B." The Latina stared straight up at the ceiling attempting to hold back her tears. She occasionally glanced over at Brittany who was peering around the curtain watching the doctor's every move.

"It's a boy, time of birth three twenty-eight," the doctor said. There was silence aside from the murmurs of the nurses and the steady beep of the monitors.

"Cry," Santana choked. "Please, God, just make him cry…"

Santana turned her head and caught sight of the extremely small baby being carried by one of the nurses and then surrounded by other nurses. Brittany squeezed her hand, the blonde's eyes were focused on the exact same place Santana's were.

"Can you see anything, B?"

Brittany shook her head. "How come he's not crying?"

"I-I don't know."

The seconds turned into a minute, one minute turned into two and just when Santana had almost given up, there it was. A high pitched cry from the corner of the room followed by a gasp and then another cry, and another. Brittany turned back to Santana and pressed a kiss to her forehead, the Latina sobbed and gripped onto her wife's hand with every ounce of strength she had as they listened to their son.

"They have to take him up to the neo-natal intensive care unit," a nurse said. "You'll see him as soon as possible but it might be a few hours."

Santana nodded and Brittany kissed the back of her hand she still had a death grip on. Santana went into recovery and she sent Brittany out to call their parents and Quinn and Rachel. Santana sat staring off into space until Brittany returned and carefully scooted in next to the Latina.

"My parents are going to leave in the morning. Your mom is going to drive to Columbus and get on the next flight she can. Rachel said to let them know if we need anything."

Santana nodded. She dozed off and was completely unaware of being taken back to the maternity ward. She woke up to Brittany nudging her awake and her regular doctor standing over her with a weak smile.

"Good morning, Santana," Dr. Hall, an older woman whose scrubs for the day were Mets baseball themed, said. "It's about eight o'clock, your vital signs are good and you appear to be okay. They are going to keep you for about a week to make sure there aren't any other complications."

Santana nodded.

"What about the baby?" Brittany asked.

"Your son is doing as good as can be expected right now. The next forty-eight hours are critical. His lungs are very good, the best they can be. Most babies need to be on a ventilator at this age but his blood-oxygen levels show that he'll do just fine without one for now. He's right at two and a half pounds, fifteen inches long."

Santana nodded again. "He'll be okay, right? He'll stay here a while and then we can take him home, right?"

"Right now we don't want to look beyond the forty-eight hour mark."

"But that other doctor said the survival rate…"

"Santana, technology can only do so much. There are some things in nature, the mother's womb especially, that cannot be re-created. His chances are good with a strong set of lungs like he has but every single doctor will tell you that they don't want to look too far ahead with premies. I'm not going to sugar coat it for you, things can go wrong. There can be complications."

"But he…"

"Forty-eight hours, Santana. We make it to that and then we'll start talking about long term."

Santana nodded again and snuggled in close to Brittany.

"When can we see him?" the blonde asked.

"I'll get an orderly up here to take you to the NICU in a little while."

Santana nodded again and clung to Brittany. They sat together in silence until an orderly with a wheelchair came in and helped Santana into it and led the way. The pair had to put on gowns and shoe covers and scrub their hands. Normally Santana would've complained about the soap making her hands dry but she was in no mood to complain about anything at the moment. The orderly wheeled Santana into the NICU, there were already parents there holding their tiny infants and Santana looked around at the rows of incubators and reached for Brittany. The blonde took her hand and the orderly stopped in front of one of the plastic boxes with a bright light hovering over it. A nurse hurried over to meet them and greeted the pair with a smile and a chair, Brittany scooted it close to Santana and sat down.

Santana peered up into the incubator and immediately looked away.

"It can be scary at first," the young blonde nurse in pink Mickey Mouse scrubs said. "It's a lot to take in. My name is Lacy, I'm his morning and early afternoon nurse. If you have any questions or need anything just ask."

"What's that up his nose?" Brittany asked. "And why did you cover his eyes like that?"

"That goes directly into his stomach for feeding. He's on formula right now but if you were planning on breastfeeding then your nurse will help you with the pump later." Lacy gestured to the bright light above the incubator. "His eyes are covered so they're not damaged by the light we use to help combat jaundice and it provides heat to keep him warm. Have you chosen a name?"

Santana shook her head, eyes focused on her lap. "He's eleven weeks early," she mumbled. "We thought we had time."

"That's usually the situation in here." Lacy smiled. "If there's anything you need then come find me."

Santana and Brittany both nodded and Brittany said a quiet "thank you".

Santana tried again to look into the incubator. She twitched and choked back a sob. The baby was tiny, nothing but skin and bones, and he looked so much different than when Brittany had Joshua. There were wires attached to pads on his chest and then there was the feeding tube up his nose and his covered eyes and he didn't look at all like the healthy newborn Santana had imagined that they would be bringing home.

"B…" Santana choked. "B…"

Brittany nodded and kissed the back of Santana's hand. "I know."

Santana swallowed hard and watched the rapid rising and falling of her son's chest and for the first time in her life she felt completely and utterly helpless.


	2. Chapter 2

**--November 5, 2025 - December 25, 2025--**

Santana quietly asked to be taken back to her room about an hour after she first saw her son. Brittany opted to stay in the NICU so Santana could rest. The Latina mostly lay in bed on her side staring out the window at the city. She lay that way until she heard the unmistakable voice that she knew was going to cause her to break down.

"Mi'ja?"

Santana rolled over and sat up, her mother hurried to her and enveloped her in a hug and Santana sobbed into her mother's shoulder.

"Mami..."

"It's okay, mi'ja, I know. I know."

Santana clung to her mother and cried while her mother rocked her and ran her fingers through Santana's hair and softly hummed to try and calm her down.

"I don't know what to do," Santana finally choked out.

The older Latina pulled back and kissed Santana's forehead.

"You do the hardest thing you have ever done, Santana. You wait."

"I can't…Mami, all my life I've known what to do. I've known by instinct or by what I was taught…I've always known what to do. I don't know what to do now. I can't do this."

"Mi'ja, mi'ja, listen to me. You listen to me right now," Santana's mother firmly cupped her face and forced her daughter to look at her. "You can do this and you will do this, ¿_comprendes_? You are your father's daughter. You are a fighter, you always have been. Do you know what Papi would say to you right now?"

Santana nodded. "You take care of your family."

"Si, mi'ja. You take care of your family. And your baby, your family, needs his mother to be strong for him because the stronger you are, the stronger he'll be. You pray and you be strong."

"I…I feel so helpless."

"You find it in you, Santana. You dig deep and you find it. Your Papi fought for everything we ever had, mi'ja. You have always done the same and now is no time to stop. You give up and you insult him."

Santana nodded and her mother wiped away her tears and kissed her daughter's forehead again.

Santana went to see the baby again before the NICU closed, her mother at her side holding one hand and Brittany holding the other. Brittany's parents called when they got into the city and the blonde directed them to their house, Santana's mother met them there when visiting hours ended. They called saying they had picked up Joshua from Rachel and Quinn's and he was sleeping soundly.

Rachel and Quinn came in briefly the next morning after they had dropped Allie at school and the twins at morning kindergarten. Brittany and Santana stayed in the NICU most of the day while the adults rotated out. When the grandparents went to lunch Santana and Brittany sat quietly watching their baby.

"Mrs. Lopez?" A young man with red hair and green scrubs on smiled at Santana and extended his hand. "We didn't get to meet yesterday, I met your wife. I'm your son's late afternoon nurse, Jeff."

"Santana." Santana shook his hand and her gaze dropped back on her son.

"He's quite a little fighter."

Santana nodded and gave a little smile.

"He's stable enough that if you would like to hold him you can."

Santana jerked her head to look at the smiling young man and then over to Brittany whose eyes were wide and the blonde was smiling from ear to ear. The Latina nodded.

"Just give me a minute to get him wrapped up."

Jeff scampered off and returned with two blankets, one large white and one small pale blue. He spread the white blanket over Santana then opened the lid of the incubator and carefully turned the baby over to wrap him in the blue blanket. Jeff shut off the light above and removed the patches covering the baby's eyes and re-arranged the cords and feeding tube before cautiously picking him up. The baby squirmed a little and grunted, Jeff smiled and Santana straightened up. The nurse nestled the tiny infant in the crook of Santana's arm and tugged down his blue cap to make sure it was snugly on his head.

"There you go, Mom," Jeff said softly.

Santana sniffled and looked down at the tiny bundle. She gently touched his forehead, his cheeks, his nose, his ears. She smiled and glanced up at Brittany who was holding her phone steady and smiling with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Would you like me to get a picture?" Jeff asked.

Brittany nodded furiously and pushed a few buttons on her phone and instructed Jeff which button to push. She knelt down beside Santana's wheelchair and the pair looked up and smiled. After the click Brittany turned her attention back to Santana and kissed the Latina's cheek.

"I love you," the blonde whispered.

"I love you too, B."

Santana made Brittany go home that evening to shower and see Joshua and eat something other than hospital food. The blonde returned a few hours later and snuggled with Santana in her bed and they both stared at the clock until it hit 4:30 in the morning.

"Forty-eight hours," was the last thing Santana whispered before she fell asleep.

...............

"He's doing very well," the NICU doctor, Dr. Brown said. Santana guessed she was around their age, light brown hair and kind of freakishly tall. "We're still not out of the woods yet but now that we're out of the critical window our main focus is going to be to get him to gain weight. His blood oxygen levels are excellent as are all of his blood counts. Had he been born when he was supposed to be he would've been perfectly healthy. There is some concern with the few minutes it took between delivery and getting him to cry but all of his function tests indicate that everything is normal right now."

"Wait, what kind of tests? Could he be brain damaged or something?" Santana's eyes darted back and forth between the doctor and the incubator, Brittany gripped her hand.

"Function tests are used to test reflexes such as sucking or toe curling when touching the bottom of his feet or grabbing when something is in his hand, they're done on all newborns. His results were completely normal for a premie. Usually when those results are normal that means he'll be just fine in the future but because of the lack of oxygen at birth, there is some concern. If there is then he won't start showing signs until he begins hitting milestones. Right now, however, the focus needs to be week to week, getting him to gain weight."

They took the bright lights off of the incubator and the patches away from the baby's eyes. Santana saw them for the first time that day and almost cried. They were dark brown and bright at the same time. He looked around as Brittany held him and grunted a little.

"He needs a name," Brittany said after the baby had closed his eyes and fallen back asleep.

"I know," Santana sighed.

Santana let her mind drift to all of the naming possibilities she had tried _not_ to think about in the last forty-eight hours until a young Asian woman approached her and Brittany with a soft smile.

"Hello," the woman said. "My name is Joy." She gestured to a man two incubators down holding a bundle of pink blankets. "That's my husband Phillip and our daughter Hope."

"Santana."

"Brittany…and he doesn't have a name yet."

Joy nodded. "Is he your first?"

Santana shook her head. "Second. We have another son, Joshua. He turned two in September. You?"

"Our third, we have a set of fraternal twins, Douglas and Grace. They were premies, too, but nothing like this. Hope came at about twenty-seven weeks. We've been here for three."

"He came at twenty-nine," Santana said. "We've been here two days."

"The first few days are always the hardest, but you've made it through the critical period and that's good." Joy smiled.

"Does it get easier? Waiting?"

"No," Joy sighed. "It doesn't." She looked back over her shoulder at her husband. "I talked to a couple that was here for ten weeks and they said each day was just as hard as the first with all of the waiting. The woman called me yesterday, they've been home for a week and she said that when they finally got home was when everything seemed to relax and she could finally stop waiting and start thinking about the future."

"That's not exactly what I wanted to hear," Santana mumbled.

"If I'd lied you would have been disappointed. He has a strong set of lungs, though. I heard him cry before you came in. Hope was on a ventilator for a week, I didn't get to hear her cry for almost eight days. Best sound I've ever heard."

Santana nodded.

"If you ever need to talk to someone my husband and I are here most of the time," Joy said. "I'll pray for you. You and your miracle." She smiled and turned to walk back to her husband.

"Thank you," Santana said softly. She looked over at Brittany whose eyebrows were furrowed. The blonde's face lit up light a light bulb when she looked back down at the baby.

"Santana?"

"Yeah?"

"What's the Spanish word for miracle?"

Santana grinned.

...............

Santana was released after a week and she tried to beg Brittany to let her find a hotel near the hospital to live in so she could be right there for their son, named Milagro "Milo" Sven (because Brittany's father was still talking about one of his grandchildren needing a Dutch name and Santana refused to let it be 'Jorg'). Brittany said no to the hotel and demanded that Santana come home. The Latina begged her wife but Brittany stood her ground and said they would be at the hospital for the majority of the day every day and at the end of that day she wanted to be at home. Santana still argued. Brittany reminded her that they did have another son to take care of and Santana finally agreed.

Brittany and Santana's house wasn't small but it wasn't huge, either. With six adults and a toddler it did feel a little crowded but everyone dealt with it. Rachel and Quinn brought over dinner almost every other night so everyone could stay as late as possible at the hospital.

The weeks slipped by, Brittany's parents went home after two but Santana's mother stayed just as she had when Joshua was born. Santana's mother oversaw the designers and decorators that Santana hired to finish the nursery and watched Joshua in shifts with Quinn in between hospital visits. When it got closer to Christmas she went with Rachel to get holiday shopping done for all of the kids.

Milo gained weight little by little. They celebrated three pounds and took out the feeding tube to put him on bottles full time. At four pounds he was moved from level one NICU to level two, taken off the heart monitors, and put into a crib instead of an incubator. Santana and Brittany could bring in clothes and even though everything they had was way too big they didn't care. It was better than nothing. He dropped back down to three and a half and Santana panicked but the doctors assured her it was completely normal for it to fluctuate. When he hit five pounds and had no other complications the doctor consented that he could go home.

Brittany's parents flew in and helped them get ready to welcome their son home and on Christmas Eve afternoon, Santana and Brittany loaded the car seat containing five pound three ounce, seventeen inch long Milo into the back of Brittany's car and Rachel drove them home. The house was fairly quiet when they got there, Santana had half expected Rachel to have thrown together a surprise party but the short brunette said she was saving that for later. What scared Santana was that she knew Rachel probably wasn't joking.

Santana's mother had Joshua on her hip and met the couple at the door with a huge smile. Santana carefully set the car seat down on the coffee table and pulled away the cover. Joshua squirmed and Brittany took him and dropped to the couch next to Santana as she carefully lifted Milo out and cradled him in her arms.

"It's your baby brother, mi'jo," Santana said.

Joshua peeked over at the tiny baby and cooed.

"Baby!"

"His name is Milo," Santana said softly.

"Milo," Joshua repeated. He crawled out of Brittany's lap to get closer to Santana and peered down at his new brother and grinned. He placed a soft kiss on the top of Milo's head and Santana almost burst into tears.

"He's your family, mi'jo. You always take care of your family, ¿_comprendes_?"

"Si, Mami."

Santana smiled. "That's my good boy."

"This is like, the best Christmas present ever," Brittany said with a huge grin.

"You're definitely right, babe."

Rachel actually called later that evening to find out if it would be an okay time to bring the girls over. Brittany and Santana consented as long as she brought cookies and Rachel of course agreed stating she already had a plate ready. Quinn put Isabelle and Olivia in Joshua's room with him so they could play while the adults cooed over Milo.

"How's the other rugrat?" Santana asked. "You finally let her go to Lima by herself, right?"

"Allie," Rachel stressed, "is doing just fine. She flew to Columbus last week and Noah picked her up. She sends her love."

"I kept forgetting there was life outside the NICU," Santana said.

"We understand, S. We're just glad you're home and you're both healthy." Quinn smiled down at the infant in her arms and ran her fingertips across his forehead. "Hey Rach…"

"I know what you're thinking, Quinn…we discussed this."

"I know we did but I mean…one more…"

"Seriously?" Santana said. "You guys want to add on? Are you crazy?"

"We've…discussed the possibility," Rachel said. "But we ultimately decided that three children is enough. Right, Quinn?"

"Huh?"

"Quinn!"

Quinn sighed. "Yes. But if Rachel wanted to change her mind anytime in the near future, I would not object."

"Just get another dog or something," Brittany suggested.

Rachel and Quinn looked at each other and they both shrugged.

"I wouldn't be opposed to that," Quinn said.

"We'll see after the holidays."

When everything was settled for the night and Joshua was in his bed and Milo in his bassinet, Brittany and Santana snuggled together in their bed and Santana curled into Brittany's chest.

"S?"

"Yeah, B?"

"I'm not scared anymore. I was…like…all the time. Until we got him home. But I didn't want to tell you because I said I would be strong."

"I was scared, too. Really scared."

"But you're not anymore, right?"

Santana looked up at Brittany and smiled. "Right. I told you everything would be fine, didn't I?"

Brittany nodded. "Yeah."

"It just took a while to get there."

"I think we picked just the right name for him. Rachel said that this is the season for miracles."

"You know," Santana said with a smirk, "this is the only time I'll ever say this out loud and you better not tell anyone, but she's definitely right."

Brittany giggled and kissed her wife. Santana sighed and snuggled back into the blonde's chest. They heard the clock in the living room strike midnight.

"Merry Christmas, Mama," Santana sighed.

Brittany giggled again. "Merry Christmas, Mami."

Santana grinned and fell into a light sleep until the melodious cries of her hungry son woke her a few hours later. She didn't complain.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This is quite honestly my favorite thing I have written to date. Not because I love angst and drama, it's because it's real. This is based off of the true story of the birth of my twin nieces who came into the world 12 weeks early. I did change some of the details to fit the story but all the rest of it is based off of what was told to me by my sister when she was going through it and also from watching as an outsider. At times it was really hard to write because I remembered when the doctors kept telling everyone "you just have to wait and see" and the uncertainty was killing us all. These girls are not only the inspiration for this fic but also for the personalities of the Fabray-Berry twins. They're ten and a half years old now and completely healthy, happy, and adorable =)


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